November 1, 2012 Meeting Minutes

Approved Minutes

Meeting Date: November 1, 2012

Presiding Officer: Andrea Weber

Members in Attendance: Andrea Weber, Scott Fiedler, Mike Frizell, Kelly Cara, Sandra Johnson, Teressa Arnette, Holly Robison, Erin Trotter, Steven Turner, Kirk Whittington, Corbin Campbel, Matthew Stublefield, Cindy Thieman (proxy for Christina Bowles), Yvette Medley, Gary Stafford, Brenda Stewart, Kathy Gibson, Ryan Reed, Sandra Arthur, Andrew Garton, Allison Overmyer.

Members Absent (Excused): Christina Bowles, Dixie Williams, Catherine Beck

Members Absent (Unexcused): Charles Schoneboom.

Guests in Attendance: Janelle Melton.

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order by Andrea Weber at 11:05 am

Approval of Agenda:

Agenda approved with no changes

Approval of Minutes:

Minutes approved with no changes

Chair’s Report:

Dixie is currently out of town at a conference, so there is no chair report this month.

Chair Elect Report:

Per the recent Clif's Notes, Missouri State has renewed their partnership with Mercy for our health care, and a 2% across the board salary increase has been approved for January 2013 for staff.

Secretary/Treasurer Report:

After reviewing the budgets this month, there were several questions regarding carry-over from last year, corrections made by Financial Services and the money that was deposited for Denim Day. Scott will meet with someone from Financial Services in November and report back any findings at the December meeting.

Director of Staff Relations Report:

Reminder: West Plains and Mountain Grove staff are on the constituent lists. You can add/remove people to your individual lists as needed. If a staff member asks to be removed, you can always do so. A list will be sent to Gary as a new Senator. Wifi work group – may start again in January. Will call on Matthew for insight in this area.

Standing Committee Reports:

Bylaws Committee – Kelly Cara: Have not met yet. Still waiting for final approval from President’s admin council regarding last year's bylaws changes.

Denim Day Committee – Andrea Weber: Wrapped up all donations. $2,850.87 in donations. About $500.00 less than last year because we did not sell t-shirts. The lunch – if you pre-purchased BoomerMeals, the meal cost less so we got a smaller donation for those meals. There were questions from faculty regarding why we participate with Lee as an organization. It was addressed by Clif Smart, and we will be reviewing this as well.

Public Affairs Committee – Gary Stafford: Upcoming dates: Adopt a street November 2nd. After the meeting, this date was cancelled due to lack of volunteers. Meals-a-million: Please contact Christine Bowles if you want to participate. Information will go out again today via email. Ryan Reed: Regarding Community Engagement: Would staff senate like to participate in one of the gift-giving activities in the community? Toys for Tots, etc. We could bring items to December meeting. Veterans Services may be doing Toys for Tots in their office. We could do it campus-wide, not just staff senate. The group decided to investigate Isabelle's House – Safe Haven for children. Ryan will look at the website and identify needs. Each Senator can provide a drop-off location in their building. A sign-up sheet was sent around to identify locations. Scott will pick up all the boxes the last day of donations.

Public Relations Committee – Brenda Stewart: Met October 25th. PR and Membership are now combined into one committee. Talked about the presentation to new staff members. Kelly will work with PR committee to do follow-up emails to new staff members from each staff senator. They are working on creating an electronic staff senate brochure, and a script for a PSA announcement with KSMU. Working with Scott on website updates. Last staff survey was done in 2004 – at least that’s the last one that we could find in the archives. The committee is considering doing another one this year. Next committee meeting is November 13th. My Ideas website – linked on our Staff Senate website. It’s like a suggestion or idea box. Great place for staff to submit their ideas regarding how to make Missouri State better. Lots of suggestions have been submitted.

Scholarship Committee – Andrew Garton: $205.00 raised so far this year without any actual events. Delivered thank you packets to those who had donated in the past. There were 40 of them. Cook books are now for sale in the bookstore and in Paw Prints for $10.00. We get the money automatically into our Scholarship Account. Will have a table at Rudolph’s 5 and dime at Blair-Shannon this year. We will be selling the cook books. Senators can work a 2 hour shift to run our table. We donate 100% of all sales to the scholarship fund. We did pay an entry fee that goes to a residence life scholarship. Also selling 100 donated knit caps. Price TBD. We are going to start a “pass the plate” at Staff Senate each month so you can donate any spare change to the scholarship. Staff appreciation luncheon in January: Dixie will speak, and will highlight the scholarship fund. Will do table tents on all the tables describing how to donate and how to apply. Will have a table to sell cook books. May find a way to collect donations at the event. Only cost to us will be printing the table tents. We are seeking approval from the President’s office and Randy Blackwood regarding our participation in this event. Date of this event has not yet been set. Looking at doing fund raisers at the concession stands on campus. We could work an event and get a percentage of the overall sales. Guaranteed that we will bring in at least $50.00 at smallest stand. Union Club luncheon – would be done in one of the ballrooms. Talking with Chartwells regarding dates. Looking at dates in April. Possibly April 8th to coincide with Staff photo days in the Union. Need at least 200 through the door before we start making money. Would get part of the sales and would do bucket drops. Need to focus fundraising for the scholarship on re-occurring donations as well as the one-time donations.

Staff Activities Committee – Chair Needed: Need a chair – have not met. Kelly may fill in to get it started until we can get a chair. You don’t need to be a senator to be on a committee.

Staff Excellence in Service Awards Committee – Matthew Stublefield: New Admin Assistant in President’s Office has taken it over and is running with it. Email notice did go out to all faculty and was included in Provost Communique this year. That was missed in the past. We will send out a reminder a week prior to the deadline.

EAP Work Group: Matthew Stublefield: Committee has not met since the last Staff Senate meeting, but they will try and meet over the next two weeks and hope to have a resolution sent out in the next couple of weeks to the Staff Senate. Hope to vote in December/January. Share it forward program – modeled after Silver Dollar City. We could donate to a fund and staff could apply for money in times of need. Contacted the Foundation and planning to get the conversation started.

Master Planning Committee: Mike Frizell: Master Planning Committee has met. Talked about revised capital appropriations for FY14 and the visioning guide. Mike gave a recap of what’s been going on regarding capital improvements on campus:

  • Foster Recreation Center
  • Kings Street - landscaping and more
  • Dining Halls - Blair/Shannon and Garst
  • PSU - Panda Express and Red Mango and well as new CASL offices
  • Glass Hall - Study Room Remodel and looking at a mini-entrance to campus for Business.
  • Temple - Vivarium Addition
  • Plaster Center for Free Enterprise
  • East Entrance to Campus Bear Boulevard and National Avenue
  • Recreation Fields - Concrete pillars and signage, upgrades, benches. All paid for through private donation.
  • Satellite Bookstores
  • Boiler #4 - replacing an existing one, and will save the University lots of money in Natural Gas.
  • Sunvilla - Still in planning stages, and not sure what they will do with it yet. Will occupy it next year.
  • Interior of PSU - starting to show wear, need to work on maintenance
  • Welcome Center at new entrance to campus.

New Business:

  1. Proposal for new Standing Committee: MSU Administrative Professionals Forum Committee: Due to time constraints, we were not able to discuss this agenda item. A motion was approved to move this to the top of the December agenda.

Old Business:

None this month.

Announcements:

There has been a request for Staff Senate to investigate the “inclement weather” policy at Missouri State. That comment will be forwarded to Dixie so we can discuss it. There was also a suggestion regarding a work group to review the staff handbook at Missouri State. This will also be forwarded to Dixie.

Adjournment:

Meeting was adjourned at 12:05pm.

Next Meeting:

The next meeting will be held: December 6th at 11:00am in PSU313. The entire Staff Senate meeting schedule can be found on the Staff Senate Calendar.